Britain's appetite for satirising the government has not diminished, as the
return of the hit political comedy Yes, Prime Minister proves.

When the two writers of the satirical comedy Yes, Prime Minister decided to adapt their series for the stage, they could not have guessed how much of a demand there was for making fun of government.

Two years since the play's first appearance at Chichester Festival Theatre, Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn's satirical take on Whitehall will return to London's West End from tonight.

After opening at the Chichester Festival theatre in 2010, the production ran at the Apollo theatre and then at the Gielgud Theatre. It now returns to the West End, playing at Trafalgar Studios – a theatre 400 yards away from Downing Street itself.

The play follows Prime Minister Jim Hacker and his Cabinet Secretary Sir Humphrey Appleby as they fight their way through issues including Europe, austerity measures, the collapsing euro and serious diplomatic misbehaviour – which has been influenced by Silvio Berlusconi and Dominique Strauss Kahn.

The new cast includes Robert Daws as Prime Minister Jim Hacker and Michael Simkins in the role of Sir Humphrey Appleby and is directed by co-writer Jonathan Lynn.

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The production received positive reviews when it first arrived on stage, with the Telegraph's theatre critic Charles Spencer saying it 'reduced me to helpless hilarity'.

Yes, Prime Minster was conceived and written by the two writers who were responsible for the television series broadcast in the Eighties of the same name and the series which preceded it – Yes, Minister. It starred Nigel Hawthorne as Sir Humphrey and Paul Eddington as the minster.

The stage production has also inspired a new version of the sitcom for television. The series will be broadcast on the channel Gold and will have the Prime Minister Jim Hacker in office leading a coalition government.